For the first time in my life I am on a cruise. We have always avoided packaged holidays prior to this – in some ways my prejudices have been justified and in others I have been amazed at the success of the venture.
It is a business that certainly makes money. Everything is bundled together and the brainwashing works. As you pay for everything up front, the mentality on board is that “it’s all free!”. Of course it isn’t, it’s just inclusive – you paid up front. A little bit of logic tells you this, but it puts in you in the right frame of mind for the next trick: a cashless system.
No one needs any cash on the boat. As long as youhave your ID card you can charge everything, as can your spouse and children (not a good thing!). Since you don’t have to actually see any money leave your hands it feels so good and it doesn’t feel like you are spending anything. Can’t fault their business sense – it certainly works – just not looking forward to the bill at the end!
From a personal perspective the system works because I don’t have to make a purchasing decision on a regular basis. As I have said before and will say again, we need to make it as easy as possible for someone to buy from us – remove as many of the purchasing decisions as possible.
This is why packaged holidays and bundled packages work – not for everything, but certainly in this case.
And yes…the cruise is great!
